Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

The Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease by Vitamin E and Selenium (PREADVISE) prevention trial is an important addition to the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). As a prevention trial, PREADVISE is trying to find out if taking selenium and/or Vitamin E supplements can help to prevent memory loss and dementia such as Alzheimer's disease.

This study will examine whether enhancing the chemical acetylcholine in the brain can improve memory and attention. It will identify changes in brain function that occur during these cognitive tasks. Animal and human studies have shown that a decrease in acetylcholine may be responsible for some of the cognition deficits in Alzheimer's disease. Conversely, patients taking medications that slow the breakdown of this neurotransmitter have experienced improvements in memory. Normal volunteers and patients with Alzheimer's disease may be eligible for this study of functional brain imaging using positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These techniques can measure brain activity and identify brain regions involved in memory and attention. Candidates for this study will be screened with a medical and psychiatric history and a physical examination including blood tests, urinalysis, chest X-ray, and electrocardiogram (ECG). Those enrolled will perform memory and attention tasks during PET and MRI studies. The cognition tasks will be repeated twice-once during infusion of saline (a fluid with no drug effect) through a catheter inserted into a blood vessel and again during infusion of physostigmine, a drug that delays the breakdown of acetylcholine. The PET procedure will be completed in one day; the MRI procedure will be done on two different days. During imaging, attention and memory tasks will be presented in short blocks of about 4-minutes duration. They will be repeated in sequence up to 10 times with a few minutes separation. Subjects will be shown pictures of faces or other visual stimuli and asked to decide whether the pictures are the same or different. Information gained from this study may increase knowledge about how acetylcholine affects the brain's response to memory and attention tasks and perhaps lead to better treatments for the cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease.

Normal cells primarily produce energy with the help of the "mitochondria". These "small organs" are also called the "powerhouses of the cell" turn the sugars, fats and proteins that is eaten into forms of chemical energy that the body can use to carry on living. This process is called oxidative phosphorylation. In addition to the help from the mitochondria and oxidative phosphorylation, most cells can produce energy by lactic acid fermentation. This process is less energy efficient but faster and used by the brain, muscle or other organs under specific circumstances and energy demands, even in the presence of abundant oxygen. It is also called aerobic glycolysis. Aerobic glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation are the two major mechanisms involved in brain energetics.

Investigators are doing this research study to find out if methylphenidate (MPH) can help people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or mild dementia likely due to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and related disorders (ADRD). The study drug MPH is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but MPH is not approved by the FDA to treat Mild Cognitive Impairment or mild dementia related to Alzheimer's Disease. However, other studies have been done in which MPH has been given to people with neurodegenerative dementias and results have shown some improvement in these people's mood and cognition. Investigators would like to see if MPH will help mood and cognition. This study will take place completely virtually (with the option to come in for the first visit to meet the study team). All study visits will occur over a secure videoconferencing platform. All study materials will be shipped directly to the home of each participant.

The investigators assume that REST gene polymorphism affects REST protein concentration, and REST protein concentration in peripheral blood is related to cognitive function and hippocampus. In this current study, REST protein content and gene polymorphism will be obtained in peripheral blood in AD and normal control. The effect of REST gene polymorphism on REST protein concentration will be discovered.The relationship between REST protein concentration and cognitive function will be found, as well as the relationship between REST protein concentration and hippocampus.

The DELPhi system is a software device that is used for the noninvasive evaluation of brain plasticity and connectivity. The DELPhi software uses EEG and TMS devices as accessories. Standard electro-physiological acquisition is performed using TMS to evoke regional neuronal potentials measured as EEG data. TMS-EEG data is analyzed with regards to conventional, well established characteristics of neuronal network plasticity and connectivity.

This project will provide new data to address an important question linking Alzheimer's disease neuropathology to physical disability.

Muscle relaxation has been reported to be effective in alleviating anxiety and agitation symptoms in patients with dementia, but no studies have examined the effects of muscle relaxation therapy on cognitive function changes. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare and validate the improvement of cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment and early alzheimer's dementia aged 50 to 85 years after performing muscle relaxation machine massage regularly.

The purpose of this study is to measure cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) clearance. CSF cushions the brain from impact and carries waste products from the brain to the bloodstream. This process is known as clearance. Researchers have considered that impaired clearance of amyloid (a protein) from the aging brain causes buildup of amyloid in the brain and plays a role in increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. However, until recently, there has not been a method to measure CSF clearance. This study will examine CSF clearance using positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, which creates images of structures in the body and their functioning. This study will also measure the amount of two proteins, tau and amyloid, in the brain. Tau and amyloid are proteins that build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. An investigational compound (tracer) called [18F]MK-6240 is injected into the blood prior to the scan in order to take images of the CSF clearance and measure tau protein in the brain. This tracer is considered investigational because it is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical use and is only being used for research purposes.

This study is affiliated to Sino Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Decline, SILCODE. To establish models of normal and pathological cognitive aging.To collect the longitudinal data of SCD population, to study the dynamic changes of brain networks so as to explore the progressive mechanisms of AD on brain networks and to construct a high-precision multi-modal model for early diagnosis.